During RAMM’s exhibition Sublime Symmetry: The mathematics behind De Morgan’s ceramic designs that opened between 20 May and 10 September 2023, the museum provided teachers with a free downloadable teacher’s resource pack and workbook to complement a school trip to the museum.
While the exhibition is now over, you can still access the teacher resource pack which includes everything needed to teach two weeks of core geometry at KS2 using William De Morgan’s ceramic designs, including lesson plans and a workbook.
Download the Sublime Symmetry workbook
Download the teachers’ resource pack
(both download as PDFs)
The visual arts are a great tool for teaching mathematical concepts such as symmetry, geometry, pattern and shape. This area of education has been widely researched and there is much evidence to support the idea that using art to teach mathematics, particularly geometry, to pupils who are visual and kinaesthetic learners can be beneficial for their learning and comprehension of the subject.
The idea for the Sublime Symmetry exhibition stems from The De Morgan Foundation’s own research into William De Morgan’s use of mathematics to create his ceramic designs and discovery of the links between the devices he used and the geometry taught in mathematics at KS2 today.
Offering an innovative and exciting way to teach and learn, the pack contains lesson plans which can be added directly to your own termly planning, ideas for creative lessons and a workbook which can be printed out and given directly to pupils.
